Marion Horse Broker Charged With Fraud

OCALA — A horse broker has been charged with defrauding an out-of-state couple of several hundred thousand dollars, and Marion County deputies say at least one more arrest is expected.

County horse broker William Campbell Thomas, 54, 810 S.W. 81st St., was charged Dec. 23 with first-degree grand theft after a Washington couple filed a complaint. Thomas had been hired to purchase and breed thoroughbred horses.

Marion deputies kept the arrest secret in hopes of capturing another suspect, but released the information when they failed to find the person.

Thomas owns Camptown Farms, a horse farm near Ocala. Other area brokers said Thomas is known in horse-trading circles, but is not one of the area's top brokers.

Sgt. Ken Ergle said officers reported that the owners of Wohlman Horse Farm, Enumclaw, Wash., were bilked out of the money over 2 1/2 years during transactions totaling more than $1 million.

Ergle said investigators aren't certain how much of the transactions billed to Wohlman Farms are fraudulent.

He said Douglas Wohlman flew to Ocala in October after the man became suspicious of several charges he was asked to pay by the horse broker. Wohlman said:

-- He was billed $800,000 for the purchase of a horse that was later shown to have cost the broker only $700,000.

-- He paid a $20,000 breeding fee that was billed to the broker at $12,500. -- He paid the broker a $50,000 breeding fee deposit on a breeding contract of $150,000 that never existed.

-- He was billed $4,000 for late interest charges because he was told the payment for four horses the broker bought from an another buyer was late. The company that sold the horses said they never charged Wohlman's broker any late fees, Ergle said.